All I Ask
by Opheliapain
Summary: Janine Giry goes back to find the boy she saved years ago only to find he has grown into a man more angered and passionate than she had ever imagained. JE
1. Down We Plunge

Title: "All I Ask"  
Rated: PG-13 for violence Summary: AU, Janine Chiry goes back to find the boy she had saved years before only to find the boy has become a man more angered and passionate than she ever imagined.  
Pairing: Janine/Erik (This is based loosely off the movie version)  
Disclaimer: Obviously, I am not the creator of "The Phantom of the Opera" otherwise, I'd have a WAY better computer to type this on. LOL...

For years she had heard his voice in the catacombs of the opera house and waited for him to come to her. Waited for him to thank her for helping find a place to call home, to accept her friendship. It had been nearly ten years since that night and still she had not even learned his name. It became apparent her curiousity needed to be satisfied when even her dreams at night were filled with his spirit. It was the night after the third showing of La Boheme in the Opera Populaire and Janine knew it was time.  
Throwing over her shoulders a light cloak and in hand a candlestick, she delved down the dusty stairwells beneath the ballet barracks.

Janine tucked an arm around her waist, the other held up high with her candle. In her mind, she imagined a million shadows to be him following her, though none denied. Each turn was another stolen breath in her lungs as the darkness overcame her. Twenty years she was and still afraid of the dark. But this was an unnatural darkness, she believed, and even more treacherous with the memory of this young man's capability fresh in her mind. She had seen murder, for the first time, performed by a seemingly demure young boy. He had to be only an age or so younger than her by now and no doubt stronger. If her presence was unwelcome or if he did not at all remember her, what would become of her? Surely she would become as one of the many lost souls the catacombs had claimed and nothing more to anybody.

In the distance a trail of lighted torches came into view, their reflections glistening on the lake below them. Atop the lake, beside a small stairwell, was a boat chained and ready. Janine dodged heavy glances around, peering through smoke and shadow. He was with her, right now, stalking in the darkness. A whimper fell past her trembling lips before she could speak a word.

"It is I," she finally shouted with a shake in her voice, "The girl you met long ago!" Once more she felt her heart quake inside of her. Something about this man caused her blood to freeze and her legs to tremble but it did not quelch her persistance.

Janine waited. She even began to doubt at all if maybe he had survived at all. If perhaps the voices she had heard were not just figments of her imagination toying with her. For so long she had wondered about him, longed to meet him once again. She wondered if not he also thought of her as well. And now here she was, in the lair of earths darkest depths and alone, with only a thought and a memory to go on.

In her mind, Janine had imagined him gentle but withdrawn, his only wish to be accepted and loved. And to this, she felt like she could connect. At a young age, she was sent away to be taught at the school. Her Father was a military officer, her Mother a common housewife with little interest in raising any of the children she bore into the world. One at a time, she sent away her siblings. Her brothers were drafted into war, her sisters were shuttled away to boarding schools. At the age of 8, she knew it was her turn. She lived with the notion of not being wanted for many years. That was until she found her purpose. Teaching. When she taught, she felt needed and respected. Young girls looked up to her. Older ones praised her. Perhaps she could pass on to this lonesome young man this gift.

Out of the silence came footsteps, light and rythmic. First they scared her. Her wildest dreams were unfolding. She would finally meet the man she had saved years ago. Would he be as she imagined? Would he be cruel? At least if he was, she'd die knowing the truth. "Boy?" she called, her voice wavering into an echo. Before she knew it-a rope scratched around her throat and the unfamiliar taste of blood filled her mouth.

"Who sent you!" shouted a voice deeper than she had remembered. Choking, her mind flashed back to the image of that night once again. The travelling fair and the Devil's child. How could she have expected anything less? She didn't even restrain him yet stood still and brave. Somehow she needed him to believe she was not here to harm him.

"Release me." she begged though her throat was crushed from the tight knoose. And yet he did not waver.

"You should not have come." he told her, in a warning tone that echoed. "Now you can never be free." Janine's eyes filled up with blood and closed just before she felt herself float down to the ground and a leathered glove halt her fall. There was no going back for her, she realized just before losing consciousness. She had reached the point of no return.

Comments are lovely!


	2. In Darkness

When she awoke she found herself facing a dark veiled room, surrounded in candlelight and broken glass. All around her were papers strewn across the floor, most with music written on them. She flicked her tongue around her mouth and realized that the bitter leady taste had been from her biting it when he choked her. Pressing a finger to her temple, she moaned and tried to get up from the bed. 

"Why have you come," asked a voice beside her, in a threatening purr nearer to a man's voice than the boy she had known. Janine straightened herself against the soft pillows arched along her back and looked for him through her throbbing eyes.

"Long have I wondered how you have faired," she spoke up, gaining back her sight steadily, "I hear your voice often singing in my mind." Through a shroud a black fabric she sees him. Slouching against a wall of mirrors, his arms folded impatiently and guarded. He is smirking at her.

"Do you?" he asked her amused, "Interesting." Janine wasn't pleased that he found her curiosity something to snigger at. Had she come to think of him all this time for nothing at all but to be made his sick entertainment?

"You think your are frightening, don't you," she stated making it obvious that she did not mean this as a question, more of an accusation. "Because you have not scared me away, yet." Then with more demanding eyes, she glared at him, "I will not be made your source of jest."

He smiled precociously at her, seemingly even more pleased, "You are not afraid for you do not know me." he told her and yanked away the veil between them. As it lifted Janine could make out the figure of a tall, slender man of muscular build. Wavy, jet-black hair swept against the gnape of his neck and a white mask covered the left side of his face to the brim of his hairline. Janine hadn't imagined this.

"I have come here with one purpose and one alone, that being to see how you have faired." she choked out as her eyes traced the outline of his body helplessly, moving with a mind of their own. "And now that I have met you and found this out, I am quite sure that doing so was a mistake upon my part."

"Was it, now?" he asked her and walked forward slowly and stopped just before meeting the edge of the bed. "Mistakes can often be remedied, madamoiselle." He spoke with his eyes tracing her widely. Janine ducked her head down from his glare but it was of no use for she could still feel him as if he were on top of her.

"Let me go, then, and I will not speak of you." she promised to him as once more she heard him step nearer.

"On the contraire, madame...it is your tongue for which you will be most useful to me." he told her, to which Janine at first did not understand. He countered this remark after a moment of silence between them, "Your managers, the men who control this opera house, they are in need of aid. Aid which I will service to them." he offered as Janine listend more intently, even daring once more to meet his dark glare. "If you do as I tell you, no harm will ever befall you or this establishment. If you do not comply, I will have no choice but to waste such beauty," he told her and brushed his gloved hand gently across her cheek sending a shiver through her, "What do you choose?"

Janine could think of no better counter-argument to this, nor plea for mercy from this angel of darkness so she did what she had to in order to remain. She agreed to this offer the man had given to her. "What would you have of me? I am only a ballet instructor."

"You will deliver to them messages to which they must comply." he told her warningly, "And if such demands are not met, I myself shall execute punishment. You will not be held responsible."

"Responsible?" she asked, confused. "What treachery-?"

"Silence!" he shouted angrily at her in a raised tone of frustration. "You will go now. Come back to me tommorow night, I will be waiting." Janine felt used, raped of something only the devil could take. Slowly she slid out of the bed and forsook her candle stick for a torch the man was now handing her. Looking at this mans face where no mask lay, she admired the delicate features of what would appear to be a gentlemen, though he was no such thing. And she wondered something.

"What is your name?" she asked of him, tamely. He looked at her, in a shock and bared back a smile. He didn't answer her immediatly, but instead just stared into the darkness.

"Erik." he told her as if the very word was foreign to his tongue. Janine nodded shyly and smiled weakly before leaving the room. Getting into the boat, Erik pushed off and paddled her back to the stairwell, the entire time not saying a word. She was sure he was just going to leave her and take off again without saying a word when a few moments after her leaving, she heard him singing.

_Who will be there for you? Comfort and care for you? Never dreamed out in the world, there are arms to hold you...you've always known your heart was on its own..._

She didn't realize at first that the reason for the fog in her eyes was not the mist surrounding her but the tears clouding her sight. She felt awkwardly sad towards this boy. Perhaps she had more to offer him than she had originally imagined.

To Be Continued...


End file.
